Sol in Wonderland 2
by malicent
Summary: Medicated and seemingly back in a right state of mind, Leafpool is back working at the Thunderclan agency. With her newly formed friendship with Graystripe, life has its advantages... until things start getting weird again. And Sol is still out there, thinly veiled and more dangerous than ever. Only one question remains... what is wonderland?
1. Deaf to the Rings

Sol in Wonderland 2

Chapter 1: Deaf to the Rings

Leafpool sipped her latte carefully, making note of the steam that was rising from the top.

"You're gonna burn your tongue," Graystripe commented, taking a sip of his own coffee. He started to choke and swallowed it quickly, making a big show of waving his hands in front of his face in a failed attempt to cool himself down.

"You're gonna burn your tongue," Leafpool said sarcastically.

"Too late," Graystripe coughed. Leafpool laughed and took another sip, relieved her coffee had cooled just to the point where it was still hot, yet not a gross warm temperature.

"So, have you heard from Crowfeather lately?" Graystripe asked casually. Leafpool narrowed her eyes at him. "No, I haven't," she said sharply. "You ask me that every day."

"I'm just making small talk," Graystripe grumbled. "Conversation has a flow."

"Well I'm sick of it always _flowing _in that direction," Leafpool said. Graystripe looked crestfallen, and Leafpool sighed. "Alright, to answer your question, no I have not heard from him. In fact, he has a new girlfriend."

Graystripes eyes stretched wide and he gasped, forgetting he had a mouthful of coffee. Leafpool sighed as coffee dribbled out of his mouth and onto his shirt.

"How can he have a new girlfriend if you two are still married?" Graystripe scoffed after wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"Well, technically we're separated," Leafpool replied, taking a sip of her coffee to stifle her laugh. Graystripe had grabbed a huge handful of napkins out of the dispenser to wipe off the small spot of coffee on his shirt.

"I bet his new girlfriends a real skank," Graystripe said, trying to be helpful. This time Leafpool couldn't hide her laughter. "You don't need to say that," she smiled. "To be honest, it doesn't bother me at all anymore. He wasn't willing to accept me for who I am, so separating was probably for the best."

"He could never get over the Sol thing, could he," Graystripe said, staring off into his handful of napkins. "I guess loony Leafpool was too much to handle."

Leafpool reached over and punched him in the arm. "Shut up!" she cried. "I just had a bit of a crazy spell last year, I'm fine now."

Last year, Leafpool had made up a huge story that she had believed she lived, involving a murderer named Sol, and a huge lot of people that he was holding prisoner. Long story short, Leafpool had ended in the hospital with a lot of drugs to turn her back in a sane direction. Leafpool was happy to live a normal life now, but no amount of drugs would ever make her forget about her times with Sol.

It felt so real.

"We're gonna be late for work," Graystripe said suddenly, looking down at his watch. "Actually, we're already late."

"Oh, crap!" Leafpool swore, grabbing her briefcase. "We need to go!"

They stood up and walked up to the front of the restaurant to pay. Leafpool reached in her wallet to pull out some bills but Graystripe stopped her by placing his hand gently over hers.

"I'll pay," he winked, and pulled out his own wallet.

"Thank you," Leafpool said, surprised by the kind gesture. Graystripe payed the bill and they walked out to Graystripes car. Leafpool was spending an unusually large amount of time with Graystripe lately. He picked her up before work so they could go for breakfast every morning, and took her out for coffee on her breaks. He usually came over after work too, to watch a movie with her and help her make dinner. Graystripe was the only friend that had stayed by her side when she went through her rough times, and Leafpool was very grateful. Leafpool worked as a detective at the Thunderclan police department, she was the only rank one detective on the force. Graystripe was a rank four, but Leafpool treated him like he was ranked quite a bit higher. Leafpool had to stop working their for a while due to her mental issues, but once she started taking medications she was allowed back on the team. Leafpool tried not to think of the sole reason she was allowed back. There was such a shortage of detectives, the other detectives didn't have a choice on whether or not to let her back.

Leafpool climbed into Graystripe small car, and buckled the seat belt. She noticed a pile of coffee cups crammed in the cup holders.

"Why don't you throw those away?" Leafpool asked as he started to drive to the station. Graystripe looked down at the cups. "I'll throw them out one of these days."

They drove in silence for a few moments before Leafpool spoke again. "You know what's dumb?" she said.

"Government?"

"No, well, yeah but that's not what I was gonna say," Leafpool replied.

Graystripe smiled slightly, turning away so Leafpool wouldn't see. "Sorry. What's dumb?"

"The fact that we don't have police cars," Leafpool continued. "It's really dumb, I mean, the Shadowclan unit has more police cars then they can drive."

"Well, that's because the Shadowclan unit gets a remarkably higher budget due to it's size," Graystripe said. "Our team has like eight members."

"Seven," Leafpool corrected. "Poppyfrost quit last week."

"Oh. I didn't even notice."

"It's really not fun pulling someone over in a minivan," Leafpool sighed. "It's really more embarrassing than anything else."

"Why don't you call the Shadowclan team and ask for a donation?" Graystripe suggested, coughing so not to laugh.

"They'd just laugh at me," Leafpool rolled her eyes. "They always do."

"Don't worry about it," Graystripe said as he pulled into the stations parking lot. "It is what it is."

Leafpool didn't reply and stepped out of the car. It was freakishly sunny out today, and Leafpool wished she had brought her sunglasses. When her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, Leafpool looked out at the lousy excuse of a police station she worked in. The whole building was slumped to one side, like a cardboard box wet from the rain. There was a plastic green and white striped awning over the doorway, but there was a big hole in the middle right above the door. Leafpool sighed and picked up her briefcase, Graystripe locked his car doors behind her. Together they walked into the office, stomping their shoes off at the doorway to get off some of the mud.

"Good morning Leafpool," the team chorused, not looking up from their computers.

"Morning," Leafpool replied, hanging up her sweater on a hat hook. "Anything new?"

"Honeyfern brought donuts," Berrynose said from his desk. "But we ate them all."

"Uh, lovely," Leafpool said, giving him a funny look. She turned to Graystripe. "Are you going to your office right away?" She asked. He nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"I need to talk to you about something," Leafpool said, thinking about ideas for a fund raiser for police cars. Graystripe nodded. "Alright."

Leafpool walked down the hall after him, feeling bad for all the other detectives who had to cram themselves in one room. She had her own head office, and she had given the spare to Graystripe. Then she remembered she had left her briefcase on the floor when she put it down to take off her shoes. Sighing, Leafpool turned around and started back down the hall. She stopped when she was in earshot of the other detectives.

"I was gonna ask for my own office," Berrynose was saying. "But then I remembered you had to be sleeping with the boss to get that."

Leafpool gasped loudly.

"She's so creepy," Honeyfern put in. She was turned around in her plastic desk chair to face Berrynose. "Its like, one minute she's gone for mental shit and then she's back, giving all the stuff _we _deserve to Graystripe."

"He doesn't even do anything," Berrynose said disgustedly.

"I bet he does," Honeyfern said scathingly. "But only to Leafpool."

Leafpool had heard enough. She walked silently out into the room, and Berrynose and Honeyfern looked up in alarm. Leafpool knew her eyes were watering but she forced herself not to cry. She grabbed her briefcase and then looked out at the scared crowd.

Leafpool knew they all had figured out that she had heard their conversation.

"Um, Graystripe and I will be going over ideas for a fund raiser for a police car," Leafpool said very softly. "Please brainstorm ideas amongst each other, and I'll be back to discuss them in a few hours," then she turned and walked as fast as she could out of the room. She wiped her eyes as she opened the door to Graystripes office, trying to calm herself down. She didn't knock, she just walked in. Graystripe looked up from his desk in surprise. "What's wrong?" he asked at once.

"I just heard an... unpleasant conversation," Leafpool mumbled, sitting down on a cheap plastic chair across from him. "It was very upsetting."

"What was it about?" Graystripe asked, concerned.

"It's not important," Leafpool sighed. "Just forget about it. Let's talk about a fund raiser we could do for a police car."

"Are you sure that's a priority?" Graystripe asked, shuffling around his papers. "Isn't there any active cases we could work on?"

"There hasn't been an active case in months," Leafpool scoffed. Graystripe smiled. "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Leafpool mumbled, looking around her. Graystripes office doubled as the storage room, his computer sat next to a pile of boxes on his desk that had no room on the shelf. Leafpool contemplated sharing her office with him, then stopped. _That's not going to help the rumors around here, _she thought.

Then a noise caught her attention. Graystripes phone had started to ring. Leafpool watched Graystripe look over her paperwork some more, thinking he would answer it the first second he got. After a few moments, Leafpool got confused. The phones ring was piercing her ears, but Graystripe didn't even seem to hear the noise.

"Are you gonna answer that?" Leafpool shouted over the ringing. Graystripe stared at her. "Answer what?" he asked. "And why are you shouting?"

"Are you deaf?" Leafpool snapped, grabbing the phone off it's extension. "Hello?" she said into the phone.

No one answered.

"Huh. Must have hung up," Leafpool set the phone back down. Graystripe stared at her, with a confused expression in his eyes.

"What?" Leafpool asked. Slowly, Graystripe got up out of his chair and reached for the phones cord. He held it up to show her.

"What?" Leafpool repeated, starting to get worried that she'd done something wrong.

"It wasn't plugged in," Graystripe said at last. "This phone hasn't worked in months."

"Well, I was _kidding," _Leafpool scoffed, getting up. "I'll be in my office," she walked away quickly, trying to make sense of what just happened.

I heard ringing.

But no one was calling.

This isn't good.


	2. Talking To Myself

Sol in Wonderland 2

Chapter 2: Talking To Myself

Leafpool brushed her long hair, frowning into the mirror. Her skin under the ghastly bathroom light held a tinge of green, and her eyes looked almost too shiny. _Crappy plastic mirrors, _Leafpool thought to herself as she packed away her brush in her bag. _We can't even afford glass ones. _She gave her reflection one last glance before turning around and walking out of the bathroom. She walked without looking at anyone down the hall, pretending to fiddle with her phone as she past another detective.

"Way to be subtle, Leafpool," Graystripe called after her. Leafpool turned around and sighed when she realized she had just obviously snubbed her friend.

"Sorry," Leafpool apologized, embarrassed. "I just feel awkward today."

"Would coffee help?" Graystripe asked, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"I already bought a coffee today," Leafpool replied. "My budget only allows one a day."

"Well lucky for you I have a freebie," Graystripe held up a small piece of cardboard. "I one a free one on my roll up the rim this morning."

"Well, we might as well not let that go to waste," Leafpool grinned, walking towards him. "You know, I never really won anything but coffee on roll up the rim before."

"Well, it fools you," Graystripe said hastily. "You see the WIN written on it, and you get all excited until you roll it more and find out its just a donut."

"It's better than a please play again," Leafpool giggled. "I buy enough coffees to buy the goddamn car prize, and yet I don't win a single thing."

"Maybe you'll get better luck this time," Graystripe said.

"Hopefully," Leafpool agreed, following Graystripe into the parking lot. She climbed in the passenger side of his car, kicking the garbage littered on the floor aside.

"Sorry about the mess," Graystripe said. "It kind of adds up."

"Well it's better than throwing it all out the window," Leafpool commented. Graystripe laughed, and turned to smile at Leafpool. Leafpool smiled back and twirled her hair with her finger. It wasn't until they were a few more blocks ahead that Leafpool realized she had actually _twirled her hair with her finger. _She awkwardly placed her hands back in her lap and stared straight ahead, feeling extremely weird. _That was something a 15 year old girl would do when she's talking to a boy she likes! _She thought to herself. _Why the hell did I do that while I was talking to Graystripe?_

"Are you getting too hot?" Graystripe asked, turning down the heat.

"What? No," Leafpool said, confused.

"Then why is your face all red?"

Leafpools heart dropped for some unknown reason. "Uh, I was thinking of something embarrassing."

"Oh yeah?" Graystripe said. "What?"

"I'd prefer not to say," Leafpool mumbled. "Oh look, we're here!"

The matter was dropped as they pulled up to a Tim Hortans, Graystripe was lucky to pull into the only free parking spot.

"Did everyone decide to come here on their break today?" Leafpool grumbled, looking into the packed café.

"Well if there's a lineup we'd have an excuse to be late," Graystripe said, half jokingly. Then he frowned. "That actually may be a poor idea," he said after a moments hesitation. "I left Berrynose in charge."

"Which means we have approximately ten minutes before he goes home pretending to be sick and tells Honeyfern to pass on the message," Leafpool said grimly. "Way to go."

"Sorry," Graystripe sighed. "Honeyfern was taking her sweet time in the bathroom, and when I banged on the door to ask her if she wanted to be in charge for a few minutes she yelled and -"

"I get it," Leafpool interrupted. "Let's just go get our coffee so we can be back before Berrynose makes a run for it."

Graystripe nodded, and they walked side by side into the building. It was humid and stuffy inside, Leafpool figured it was from the rude amount of people who had stuffed themselves in.

"We should have gone through the drive through," Leafstar muttered to Graystripe.

"You know very well why we didn't do that," Graystripe snapped. Leafpool tried not to laugh as she thought of the last time he had gone through the drive thru with Graystripe. He had gotten his car stuck in the skinny curve where you take your order, and the drive thru had to be shut down for half an hour.

"What do you want to get?" Graystripe asked Leafpool, breaking her out of her thoughts. "I'm gonna get a black coffee."

"Black?" Leafpool scoffed. "Yeah right. You put enough sugar in your coffee to give diabetes to an entire village."

"That's not nice," Graystripe sighed. Leafpool smiled as she watched him try to hide his laughter.

"I'll just have a latte, skim," Leafpool said. "And thanks."

"No problem," Graystripe smiled. He walked forward and started to order. Leafpool waited a few feet behind, straightening out her white dress shirt. She was just in the process of checking her cell phone for messages when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Oh hey, it's done already?" Leafpool asked, turning around. She was startled to find that it was not Graystripe who tapped her shoulder, but a man. He had long orange and black hair, and his eyes glinted green. His smile showed a set of perfectly set teeth, except for the one on the far side of his mouth that was missing.

"Hello, Leafpool," Sol said.

Leafpool started to shake as she looked at the man who used to torment her. _It's not real, _she told herself. _It's not real! _

_But then how did I feel him tap my shoulder?_

Leafpool whipped around to face him, prepared to tell him to leave her alone. She looked around, confused.

Sol had disappeared.

"What are you looking for?" Graystripe asked. Leafpool turned to see her friend, holding two coffees.

"Uh, I just thought I saw someone I knew," Leafpool whispered, taking the coffee from him. Graystripe didn't look convinced. "You've turned whiter than a ghost," he commented. "And your shaking."

"I'm just cold," Leafpool mumbled.

"Who did you think you saw?" Graystripe asked gently, voice turning concerned. Leafpool realized she could either tell the truth and sound crazy, or lie and feel guilty about it for the rest of the day. _Well, the choice is obvious, _Leafpool thought.

"I thought I saw Crowfeather," she said at last. "Just startled me, that's all."

"Where?" Graystripe asked, looking around. "I didn't see him."

"He just left," Leafpool lied. "Just forget about it okay?"

"Yeah," Graystripe said slowly. "We should be getting back anyway, Berrynose will be on the move any moment."

Leafpool laughed along with him and followed him out of the café. As she opened the door to Graystripes car, she made the mistake of looking back. Sol sat alone at a table behind the window, waving at her. Leafpool forced herself to look away and get in the car, willing herself not to start trembling again.

As Graystripe pulled out of the parking lot, the world stood still.

Somewhere in the distance, Sol sipped his coffee alone.


	3. Freak Show

Sol in Wonderland 2

Chapter 3: Freak Show

"So you say you've been seeing things again?" the doctor asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow as she wrote notes on her chart. "When did you start noticing this?"

"Last week," Leafpool said. "Last week I heard a phone ring, but it was not. And just yesterday, I thought I saw a man that wasn't there."

"Hm," the doctor grunted. "Are you sure the man was an hallucination?"

"Oh, I'm quite sure," Leafpool sighed, kicking her feet awkwardly. "It was Sol."

"Oh," the doctor paused and looked over her chart. Leafpool gulped nervously. "I just don't know why," she stammered quickly. "I haven't seen Sol in years. Why would he come to me now?"

"He didn't come to you," the doctor said briskly. "You thought him up."

"But I wasn't even thinking about him," Leafpool protested.

"Hm," the doctor looked stumped. "What were you doing at the time, Leafpool?"

"Having coffee with... a friend," Leafpool replied hesitantly. "Why?"

"That's what I thought," the doctor nodded slowly and wrote something down. For some reason this made Leafpool extremely uncomfortable. "What's wrong with having coffee?" Leafpool snapped.

"I think you drink too much coffee," the doctor replied. "Having too much caffeine in your system could tamper with your medications."

"I highly _doubt _drinking a skim latte is going to make me see Sol," Leafpool mumbled. The doctor glared at her. "It's a high possibility," she snapped. Leafpool was getting sick and tired of the doctors tone, and she got up to leave. "Look, can you just up my dosage on my meds?" Leafpool said. "I think more power in my pills will block out Sol for good."

"I'll up it from 20 mg to 30 mg," the doctor said, scribbling down a prescription on her notepad. "And I want to see you in two weeks for a follow up."

"_Thank _you," Leafpool said, snatching the paper. "See you in two weeks," and with that, she stalked out of the room and into the lobby. She pulled on her shoes and left the building, shielding the blinding sun from her eyes with her hands. Downtown was busy today, people pushed past her in a hurry. _It's gonna be a pain getting a taxi at this hour, _Leafpool thought to herself as she looked around for a yellow cab. _I wish I had asked Graystripe to pick me up. _Then, as luck would have it, a yellow car turned around the corner towards her.

"Taxi!" Leafpool called, holding up her arm to get his attention. The cab slowed and parked beside her, motioning for her to get in. Leafpool couldn't really see the man driving due to the glare on his windshield, but she smiled anyone and got in the back.

"Where to?" the cab driver asked, his dark eyes looking at Leafpool through his mirror.

"Thunderclan agency," Leafpool replied, buckling her seatbelt. "And hurry please, I'm late. My doctors appointment took longer than I thought."

"No problem," the man shifted his eyes to the road and started the cab. In a few swift movements, they were on the road.

"I didn't think I'd be able to get a taxi right away," Leafpool said, feeling the need to make small talk to avoid a long silence. "I thought all the cabs would be busy at rush hour."

"You got lucky," the man replied. "I guess you were just at the right place at the right time."

"Yeah," Leafpool murmured, looking out the window. The city streets flew by in a whirl.

"So... Thunderclan agency, huh?" the man said after a few long moments. "Are you like, a policeman... or girl, I should say?"

"Hardly," Leafpool replied proudly. "I'm the head detective on the force."

"I know," the man said simply. Leafpool sat for several seconds before that registered in her head.

"You ... know?" Leafpool said slowly. "How would you know I'm head detective?"

"Because," the man said, turning around and giving her a evil smile. "You've been after me for years."

Leafpool screamed, closing her eyes against Sols smiling face. _It's not real it's not real it's not real. _

"Holy, lady, what's your problem?"

Leafpool peeked open one eye to see a confused looking man looking at her. He had a beard, and soft kind eyes. He did not have long black and orange hair, or piercing blue eyes. He was not Sol.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Leafpool mumbled, handing him a twenty dollar bill with shaking hands. "I uh, thought I saw a spider."

"Alright," the man didn't look convinced. "You take care of yourself, lady."

Leafpool thanked him again and got out of the cab, walking briskly into the Thunderclan police office. Almost the second she walked in, Graystripe motioned for her to come over. Leafpool walked over to him, wondering briefly why he was sitting at the crappy spare computer when he had his own in his office/storage closet.

"What took you so long?" Graystripe asked the second she came into earshot. Leafpool, who was still spooked from the taxi incident, shrugged nonchalantly. "There was a long wait in the doctors office," she said simply.

"Yeah, well, you're not gonna believe this," Graystripe said urgently. "Honeyfern, come over here and show Leafpool what you found."

Honeyfern got out of her desk, holding a piece of paper in her pale hands. She thrust it towards Leafpool without so much as a smile. Graystripe put his chin on Honeyferns shoulder so he could read it too, and this caused a weird pang of anger in Leafpools belly. She cleared her throat and back up a bit. Graystripe took his chin off Honeyferns shoulder and moved closer to Leafpool. Leafpool forced her distracting thoughts out of her mind and read out loud the words.

"They used to sing, the colors would spin.

Inside this castle I am in

The sun would shine, their smiles bright

Would keep me going through the night..." Leafpools voice trailed away. "Graystripe, I don't understand," she said slowly, even though it was Honeyfern who found it. "What is this?"

"I found it on the internet," Honeyfern jumped in rudely, desperate for the credit. "There was a whole website with this kind of garbage on it."

"It's not garbage," Leafpool whispered, scanning the rest of the poem. "I mean, listen to this-

They'd play the songs, in which I'd cower

In the tallest peak of towers

They dance and spin the ground would move

The colors swirled around my shoes."

"What the hell were you searching to find this?" Graystripe asked Honeyfern, who looked slightly awkward.

"I wasn't searching anything weird, okay," Honeyfern snapped. "An ad came up advertising some crap about a show coming to our town and I clicked on it."

A sinking feeling dropped in Leafpools stomach. "How many people clicked on this?" she pushed past Honeyfern and looked at her computer monitor, which still had the website loaded. She clicked the home button, and was taken to the starting screen, which had the disturbing poem she had read aloud on it. The strange words were written in a loopy script, they looked fine, unthreatening. Leafpool was starting to wonder if she had jumped to conclusions with the poem, until she read more.

"The piano was angry, it's notes aggressive

Into the violence I had expected

Dirty floor, glitter powder

The drums would beat, my heart was louder

Blank masks, heels and stilts

Freaks, we're freaks

Society built.

And now ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show!

Let's see what we have here and where we can go

A man with no mouth was the first on the block

Laugh at him people, he's a freak that can't talk!

And the next one my audience, a girl with no eyes!

Your laughter is funny at those who are blind

And next on the stage is my personal best

I saved him for last cause it tops all the rest

The freak of the freaks, that you can all see

Is the one, the only, the wonderful me!

I can break bones, well if they are mine

I love it so much I do it all the time!

I clamp them in grips, I don't need any help

And with one fatal jerk I then snap them myself!

Oh the pain, the pain

Won't you give me more?

This is nothing, nothing, what I have in store

This smile I have, you make think I fake it

But trust me when I say I know I can take it

So pass me the vice grip and hand me the clamps

I'm breaking my spine and there's no going back

So in that moment when there was a snap

And my spine arched with a sickening crack

The bones in my body are under attack!

But I smiled, I smiled, though I could not move

I finally made the point I tried to prove

Because pain can be horrid, and the healing is long

But when healing is over, the pain will be gone

I can't feel my fingers

I cant feel my spine

But this happiness inside me, oh yes it's all mine

Now my viewers, fans, I bid you not go

Because I am the star

Welcome to the show..." Leafpool finished reading the poem in a whisper, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

"What do you think the website is?" Honeyfern asked. Leafpool laughed shortly, fear numbing her body. "It's an advertisement for a freak show," Leafpool said quietly, looking at the person staring out of the screen with a mask covering his face. "And I think I know who's running it."


End file.
